Huggins leaves K-State for West Virginia

Manhattan, KS (Sports Network) – Bob Huggins is heading back to his alma mater
as he is leaving Kansas State to take over the men’s basketball team at West
Virginia.

“This is a tough day for the entire K-State nation,” said athletics director
Tim Weiser. “Bob Huggins did a terrific job during his short tenure to put
Kansas State back on the basketball map and we appreciate his efforts. It’s a
shame that he has decided not to finish the job he started here.”

Last season with the Wildcats, which turned out to be his first and only
season, Huggins guided the team to a 23-12 record, the most wins at the school
since the 1987-88 season, but the team did not receive an invitation to the
NCAA Tournament.

However, the school did make it to the postseason to break an eight-year
drought as the Wildcats were invited to the NIT, where they lost in the second
round to DePaul.

Huggins has also coached at Walsh, Akron and Cincinnati and has amassed a
590-211 record, sixth-highest among active Division I coaches, and has
appeared in the Final Four once, in 1992 with Cincinnati.

He will take over a Mountaineers team that had been guided by John Beilein,
who was hired by Michigan on Tuesday, for the past five years.

“I’m incredibly happy to be coming back to West Virginia,” Huggins said. “I
left a great situation at Kansas State with wonderful people who are as close
to West Virginia people as you can get. I just wanted to come home.”

This past season West Virginia finished with a 27-9 record and won the NIT
championship.

Huggins graduated from West Virginia in 1977 and received his Master’s Degree
in health administration from the school in 1978.